Chapter 14
Humanistic/ Phenomenological Perspective
"emphasizes the individual's freedom of action and search for meaning."
PersonCentered Theory
A theory that postulates that all people have an innate drive toward selfactualization or a tendency for their self-images to seek and maintain congruence with their potentials. *Strengths-focused, focused on positive regard toward client and positive self-regard *Self-actualization *People develop a conscious sense of who they are, which is called self-concept, that is fluid and unfolds over time, is socially determined *Congruence, which characterizes a fully functioning person, is experienced when the selfconcept embraces all of its potentials. *Incongruence is when selfconcept and the actualizing tendency are mismatched *Believes that the client is aware of a problem but may not have a clear sense of its sources or solutions. Carl Rogers *Enhance the client's congruence relative to a presenting challenge *Create an environment that allows for the client to move towards congruence or selfactualization *The theory's contribution to the appropriate nature of the client/worker relationship is useful to be used with many other therapeutic approaches. *Practice empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness toward and with the client *"Intervention
Psychosexual Stages of Development
As people grow and develop, they pass through stages that are dependent on proper resolution of psychosexual conflicts at the previous stage (oral, anal, phallic/Oedipal, latency, genital) * Early childhood experiences are important to personality development *People have unconscious and conscious motivation *The ego assists in rational action *People use defense mechanisms to avoid unacceptable feelings *People can experience ambivalent feelings concurrently like love and hate Freud *Useful for understanding individual growth & development across life cycle *Beneficial for assessing individual strengths & deficits *General assessment of developmental functioning that can be compared with chronological age of the client
Cognitive Theory
Asserts that conscious thinking is the basis for most human behavior and emotional experience. * Concerned with the rationality of one's thinking *Conscious thinking effects behavior and feelings *Relevant Early Life Experiences àCore beliefs/Schemas àCoping Assumptions àCoping Strategies àSpecific Situationsà Automatic Thoughts and Their Meanings à Emotions à Behaviors *Nature of problems - Cognitive deficits - Causal attributions - changeable, power, specificity - Cognitive distortions Ellis Beck *Useful for assessing and addressing distorted thinking that might be influencing behavior *Cognitive restructuring *Cognitive coping *Problem-solving skills development
Operant Conditioning Theory
Behavior theory that aims at understanding behavior as a consequent of other behaviors and at controlling behavior by altering a target behavior by altering the behaviors that proceed and follow that behavior. *Antecedents to and consequences of a behavior determine future behavior. *Positive reinforcement encourages the continuation of the behavior *Negative reinforcement is the process in which an aversive event is terminated by the individual's behavior therefore reinforcing the behavior (i.e. self-medicating successfully to avoid) *Positive punishment adds a negative consequence that eliminates a behavior *Negative punishment eliminates a reinforcer that then eliminates the behavior (i.e. ignoring) Skinner *Useful for understanding the ways others contribute to reinforcing maladaptive behavior *Change the reinforcement or the stimulus to change the targeted behavior *Behavior Analysis of Antecedents and Consequences Ask: when, where, with whom, duration, frequency, what happens immediately after/before, what does your body feel? * Parenting skills development *Social reinforcement (praise), high-probability behaviors (things we do for fun), token economies *Punishment, extinction, commands and requests
Social Behavioral Perspective - "suggests that human behavior is learned as individuals interact with their environments."
Classical Conditioning Theory Natural science that aims at the prediction and control of human behavior shaped through the selection of stimuli. *Previously neutral stimulus produces a certain response when paired repeatedly (and reverse) *Many anxiety-related disorders are classically conditioned as fears are generalized. Watson Pavlov *Useful for understanding the development of irrational fears and then decreasing their impact on behavior *A conditioned stimulus that usually produces a negative response (anxiety) becomes paired with a new, incompatible response (relaxation). *Systematic desensitization/gradual exposure *Relaxation training
Psychodynamic Perspective - "is concerned with how internal processes such as needs, drives, and emotions motivate human behavior."
Ego Psychology Theory *Developmental processes across the life cycle *Unfolding of human capacities in response to interaction between the environment and the inborn developmental potentials of a person *Internal forces that propel individuals towards complex and goal-directed patterns of organization *Ways individuals either adapt or modify their environment to be more compatible with their wishes *Unconscious and conscious mental activity motivate human behavior *Ego functions mediate between individual and environment *Ego defense mechanisms protect individuals from becoming overwhelmed by unacceptable impulses and threats *Internalized experiences shape personality development and functioning *Healing occurs through attention to transferences and the treatment relationship Hartmann White *Assess ego functions, defense mechanisms, and psychosocial development * Build new ego strengths (ego modifying) *Use existing ego strengths more effectively (ego sustaining) *The relationship - transference & countertransference *Exploration/Description/ Ventilation *Sustainment *Person-Situation Reflection *Advice and Guidance (Direct Influence) *Partializing (Structuring) *Education *Developmental Reflection
Conflict Perspective- "draws attention to conflict, inequality, dominance, and oppression in social life."
Empowerment Theory An interactive process through which people experience personal and social change, enabling them to take action to achieve influence over the organizations and institutions which *Individuals are assumed to understand their own needs better than anyone else and therefore should have the power both to define and act upon them. *All people possess strengths upon which they can build (Strengths Perspective) *Empowerment is a lifelong endeavor *Personal knowledge and Solomon Lee Gutierrez Rose *Social workers help clients become more aware of the tensions within themselves and their surroundings that oppress or limit them. Social workers also help clients become better able to free themselves from known constraints. *Applied on personal, *Worker in empowerment roles - resourceconsultant, sensitizer, teacher trainer, cooperator *Accept client's definition of the problem *Identify and build upon existing strengths *Attend to power dynamics in helping relationship
Systems Theory
How persons interact with their environment. Persons are in continual transaction with their environment *Systems are interrelated parts or subsystems constituting an ordered whole *Each subsystem impacts all other parts and whole system *Systems can have closed or open boundaries *Systems tend toward equilibrium Parsons Merton Germain Gitterman *Useful for developing holistic view of persons-inenvironment *Enhances understanding of interactions between micro-meso-macro levels of organization *Enriches contextual understanding of behavior *Strengthen one part of the system or subsystem to impact the whole system *Ecomaps & genograms for understanding system dynamics *Networking & referrals to facilitate change Family Systems Theory How the family system affects the individual and family functioning across the lifespan *Individual function. *Individual functioning shapes family functioning and family systems can create pathology within the individual *Boundaries, roles, communication, family structure influence family functioning Bowen Guerin Satir Carter & McGoldrick *Useful for understanding family systems and life cycles over multiple generations *Assessment of family development and lifecycle transitions *Use of multigenerational genograms *Use of family and parent coaching
Conflict Theory
How power structures & power disparities impact people's lives *All societies perpetuate some forms of oppression & injustice and structural inequity *Power is unequally divided & some groups dominate others *Social order is based on manipulation and control by dominant groups *Social change is driven by conflict, with periods of change interrupting periods of stability *Life is characterized by conflict not consensus Marx Marcuse Haberrmas *Informs policy and may guide macro-level practice *Useful in formulating assessments involving oppression and client vulnerability *Enhances understanding of conflict between persons, ideas, groups, classes, & larger social structures *Listen for evidence of oppression within individuals, groups, and communities *Pay attention to the role of conflict leading to client vulnerability *Organize to alter power relationships *Recognize that dominant and subordinate groups compete for resources
Symbolic Interactionism
How the "self" is influenced and shaped by social processes and the capacity to symbolize *Human action is caused by complex interaction between and within individuals *Dynamic social activities take place among persons and we act according to how we define our situation *We act in the present, not the past *Individuals are actors on the stage and take on roles, interacting with the environment Charon Mead Goffman *Enhances understanding of the relationship between the individual and society and the "self" as a social process *Provides framework for individual, group, and societal assessment *Provides alternative view of deviance and psychopathology *Formulate assessment and intervene through understanding roles assumed by individuals and groups through individual and society interaction *Focus on diminishment of the sense of stigma for individuals, families, groups, and communities
Models of Practice drawing from multiple perspectives- motivational intervening
Motivational Interviewing *Model of practice using concepts from person-centered therapy, theory of cognitive dissonance, and the Transtheoretical Stages of Change model *Use with reluctant or unmotivated clients *Cognitive Dissonance - a person is not capable of holding two incompatible beliefs at once; we reconcile the discrepancy to avoid anxiety *Transtheoretical Stages of Change: - Precontemplation - Contemplation -Preparation/ Determination - Action - Maintenance - Relapse Miller Corcoran *Use of empathy in selective ways to motivate clients towards change *Create and amplify client's dissonance about the discrepancy between goals and behavior *Roll with resistance *Support self-efficacy *Eliciting self-motivational statements *Strategies to handle resistance * The decisional balance * Building self-efficacy
Maslow's Theory of SelfActualization (Hierarchy of Needs)
People have a natural inherent tendency to express their innate potentials for love, creativity, and spirituality - selfactualization. * Self-actualization and selftranscendence, proceed only after one meets the needs of survival, security, sense of being loved, and self-esteem (hierarchy of needs) *People who desire power and possessions are oriented toward deficiency-cognition and motivation *People should be oriented toward being-cognition and motivation having a sense of inherent dignity and worth in self and others Maslow *Useful for assessing client's readiness/ capacity for engaging in change/emotional growth *Assess where client is in terms of level of need/capacity for change according to the hierarchy of needs *Design interventions based on identified level of psychosocial need
Social Learning Theory/ Modeling
People learn behaviors by watching others engage in those behaviors and be reinforced or punished for them. *Draws on classical and operant conditioning principles *Observational learning takes place in a social context and is influenced by other factors including reinforcements, similarities perceived between model and subject, model is perceived to be of high status Bandura *Useful in understanding how behaviors are passed from one person to another (i.e. from a father to his son) *Behavior change happens through modeling more adaptive behaviors followed by practicing those behaviors *Modeling followed by behavioral rehearsal *In vivo experiments
CBT
Practice theory based on combining Cognitive Theory and Behavioral Theory *Focused on changing cognition, changing behavior, and building client' coping skills *Assertion that thoughts, feelings, and behaviors impact one another and if you change one, you can change them all Burns *Useful for educating clients about how thoughts impact emotions which impact behaviors and then making changes to all by addressing one area *All the above applications in this section of social behavioral perspective *Psychoeducation about the CBT Triang
Object Relations Theory
Psychodynamic theory that focuses on how a set of a person's internalized attitudes toward other people and toward the self influences their behavior and emotional states. *Satisfactory human development is dependent on healthy early attachments *Nature of objects (self and others) and how they become internalized *Separation and individuation *Facilitative environments and holding environments *Transitional objects *Object contancy Spitz Mahler Kernberg Winnicot *Useful in understanding attachments, how one's inner world becomes composed of representations of others, and the challenge of balancing being alone and being with others *Change requires insight into repetitive negative interpersonal patterns *Must modify internal structures (objects) so that they can respond to others as unique human beings rather than representations of past relationships *Assess the separationindividuation level of the client, the defense mechanisms, and client's receptivity to exploration of relationships *Insight building *Use of the relationship - transference *Similar to ego psychology interventions but focused more on developmental reflection *Interpret positive and negative patterns of interaction and work to resolve interpersonal conflicts and developmental arrests.
Developmental Perspective - "focuses on how human behavior changes and stays the same across the life cycle."
Psychosocial Developmental Theory How internal & external forces shape life development, generally by life stages (trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. self-absorption, integrity vs. disgust and despair) *Human development occurs in defined & qualitatively different stages that are sequential & may be Universal *Individual stages of development include specific tasks to be completed & crises to be managed *Time & social context shape & individualize the meaning of life stages Erikson *Useful for understanding individual growth & development across life cycle *Beneficial for assessing individual strengths & deficits *General assessment of developmental functioning that can be compared with chronological age of the client
Social Constructionist Perspective - "focuses on how people learn, through their interactions with each other, to classify the world and their place in the world."
Social Constructionism How sociocultural and historical contexts shape individuals and the creation of knowledge How individuals create themselves *All experience is subjective and human beings recreate themselves through an ongoing, never static process *Knowledge is created through an interplay of multiple social and historical forces *Social interaction is grounded in language, customs, cultural and historical contexts *All phenomenon, including the sciences, must be approached with doubt in order to understand how people construct reality *Humans are self-interpreting beings Foucault Berger Luckmann Gergen *Enhances understanding of individual and cultural connection *Useful for understanding nondominant and oppressed groups in a nonmarginalized manner *Listen for cultured narratives *Approach practice with a stance of "not knowing" *View practice as "mutual interchange" because relationships have "mutual influence" *Recognize how individuals and groups construct their identities through an ongoing, fluid process
Rational Choice Perspective- "sees human behavior as based on self-interest and rational choices about effective ways to accomplish goals."
Social Exchange Theory How persons minimize costs and maximize rewards through social exchange *Antecedents, consequences, personal expectations, and interpretation shape and maintain behavior in the present *Self-interest determines social exchange *Unequal resources determine power inequities and reciprocity is essential *Six propositions: --Success proposition --Stimulus proposition --Value proposition --Deprivation-satiation -- proposition --Aggression-approval proposition --Rationality proposition Homan Thibault Kelley Blau *Useful for assessing and understanding power inequities and distributed justice *Basis for cost-benefit analysis *Assess resources and power inequities at the meso-macro level *Facilitate group and community interaction *Maximize costs, minimize rewards in the macro environment
Systems Perspective
Stepping back to view an entire process to see how each component connects with the others
Attachment Theory (also draws from Developmental Perspective)
The earliest bonds formed by children with their caregivers have a tremendous impact that continues throughout life. *Infant-mother attachment is biologically based relationship that evolved to protect infants from real danger *It is also an affectional tie that one person forms to another person *Secure base - an attachment object, usually the mother, who provides a foundation for curious exploration *Attachment styles that begin in childhood endure throughout lifetime - secure, anxious-ambivalent/resistant, anxious-avoidant, disorganized Harlow Bowlby Ainsworth *Useful for assessing relationship patterns in childhood and adulthood *See object relations theory *Circle of Security *Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)
SolutionFocused Therapy
This model starts with the solution and then helps the client establish the steps that will lead to the solution *Problems are real, but usually not as ubiquitous as clients might assume *Draws from systems, cognitive, communication, and crisis intervention theories; principles of brief therapy; and social theory of constructivism deShazer Berg *De-emphasize problem talk and emphasize solution talk *Help clients discover exceptions to the problem *Help clients become more aware of their strengths and resources and learn to think and act differently *Miracle question *Future-oriented questions *Reframing *Externalizing the problem *Scaling the effort toward problem resolution
Feminist Theory
a theoretical approach that looks at gender inequities in society and the way that gender structures the social world
